Born in St. Louis on February 10, 1944, Frank Keating moved with his family to Tulsa before he was six months old. He received his BA from Georgetown University and completed his law degree at the University of Oklahoma in 1969. Keating began his career in law enforcement as a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he was assigned to investigate terrorist incidents on the West Coast. He later returned to Tulsa as an assistant district attorney, and in 1972 he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Two years later he won a seat in the Oklahoma State Senate, where he rose to the position of minority leader. In 1981, Keating was named U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma by President Ronald Reagan.

As a federal prosecutor, Keating served as chairman of all United States Attorneys. In 1985 he accepted appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and later served as Associate Attorney General. In those two capacities, Keating was responsible for oversight of the U. S. Customs Service, the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U. S. Marshals Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, all 94 U. S. Attorneys and America's role in Interpol. In 1990, he joined Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp as General Counsel and Acting Deputy HUD Secretary. During his service in Washington, Keating was the highest ranking Oklahoman in the Reagan and Bush administrations. He was appointed to the federal bench by President Bush, but that appointment was derailed by the incoming Clinton administration.

In 1994, Keating won the Republican nomination for Governor of Oklahoma. Less than three months after Governor Keating assumed office, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in downtown Oklahoma City claimed 168 lives.